Imperial Flights and Encounters: recovering the experiences of People of Colour in Scottish wartime aviation, 1914-1945

这一博士学位将是两次世界大战期间恢复和重建苏格兰皇家空军有色人种人员的第一次持续尝试。该项目旨在展示1914-1945年间苏格兰与飞行有关的人的多样性，了解这些人的贡献和经历，并通过物质文化和档案研究来证明这一点。它将涉及对苏格兰航空收藏品的重新审查，以考虑这些故事是如何或可能在博物馆收藏品和展览中表现出来的。1945年，航空部的一份备忘录估计，在第二次世界大战期间，有422名加勒比海人、西非人和南亚人在英国皇家空军担任机组人员，另有3900人担任地勤人员。在第一次世界大战中，来自印度的男人也在皇家飞行兵团中发挥了积极的作用，印度皇家空军成立于1932年，来自印度的男人和女人在整个第二次世界大战期间在英国和印度接受训练和服役。很难知道大英帝国各地在英国皇家空军服役的男性和女性的确切数字，因为种族不会在注册时自动记录下来。在苏格兰的东财富机场，也就是现在的国家飞行博物馆，从个人的记录证词和机场自己的操作记录簿上可以知道，人们来自世界各地，包括来自特立尼达和牙买加的飞行员和机组人员。他们与苏格兰的联系从最初到达，到作为中队的一部分驻扎在苏格兰，隶属于空军基地，或者前往苏格兰接受培训。然而，他们对战争努力的贡献并没有反映在国家飞行博物馆或苏格兰其他任何航空博物馆讲述的历史中。该项目旨在恢复和重建来自英国和国际博物馆、档案馆、服务协会和其他文化社会的有色人种服务人员的叙事和故事。它将拓宽我们对苏格兰战争经历、苏格兰与大西洋奴隶制的历史联系、持久的帝国关系和互惠的散居海外遗产的理解。除了分析苏格兰各地的叙事和历史，这个项目也是一个机会，以确定幸存的物质文化，以加强收藏，并为未来在苏格兰国家博物馆的展示做出贡献。该项目将符合当代军事史学，将人们的经历放在研究的前沿。此外，它还将与当前的博物馆学理论平行，这些理论涉及如何利用博物馆收藏品来增强其服务的社区的能力，以及博物馆如何越来越多地成为自身的活动家。与此相关，这一博士的发现将与博物馆协会的非殖民化博物馆和授权收藏品运动中概述的目标紧密联系在一起。

This PhD will be the first sustained attempt to recover and reconstruct the presence of Personnel of Colour within the RAF in Scotland during the two world wars. This project aims to demonstrate the diversity of people connected to flying in Scotland between 1914-1945, understand the contributions made and experiences of those individuals, and evidence this through material culture and archival research. It will involve a re-examination of Scottish aviation collections in order to consider how such stories are, or could be, represented in museum collections and displays. In 1945 an Air Ministry memorandum estimated that 422 Caribbean, West African and South Asian people had served as aircrew with the RAF during the Second World War, with a further 3,900 serving as ground crew. In the First World War men from India also played active roles in the Royal Flying Corps, and the Royal Indian Airforce was formed in 1932 with men and women from India being trained and serving in the UK and India throughout the Second World War. It is difficult to know the exact figures of men and women from across the British Empire that served with the RAF, as ethnicity was not automatically recorded on enrolment. At East Fortune airfield in Scotland, now the National Museum of Flight, it is known from personal recorded testimonies and from the airfield's own Operations Record Book that people came to be trained from all around the world, including pilots and aircrew from Trinidad and Jamaica. Their connections to Scotland range from initial arrival, to being based in Scotland as part of a squadron, attachment to air bases or travelling to Scotland for training. However, their contributions to the war effort are not reflected in the histories told at the National Museum of Flight nor at any of the other aviation museums in Scotland. This project aims to recover and reconstruct narratives and stories of service personnel of colour from across UK and international museums, archives, service associations and other cultural societies. It will broaden our understanding of the experience of war in Scotland, Scotland's historic connections with Atlantic slavery, enduring imperial relationships and reciprocal diasporic legacies. As well as analysing narratives and peopling the histories of places in Scotland, this project is also an opportunity to identify surviving material culture to enhance the collections and contribute to future displays at National Museums Scotland.The project will fit in line with contemporary military historiography which puts the experiences of people at the forefront of the research. In addition, it will also parallel current museology theory relating to how museum collections can be used to empower the communities they serve and how museums are increasingly becoming activists in their own right. Relating to this, the findings of this PhD will link closely to the goals outlined in the Museum Association's Decolonising Museums and Empowering Collections campaigns.